Commentary: Will average users want all this in their faces?

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Google Inc.’s Project Glass, the futuristic glasses which bring the Internet, your phone and who knows what else to your peripheral vision, may be the latest thing in geek chic in Silicon Valley, but will real people want texts, emails, tweets, and Facebook updates in their face?

Two of Silicon Valley’s big venture capital firms are betting yes. Last week, along with Google’s
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venture capital arm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz created an investment vehicle called the Glass Collective. The goal is to invest in developers and startups with ideas for software, hardware, apps and accessories that will create an ecosystem for Google Glass, and discover all the things that can be done with the sci-fi looking glasses.

The move is in some ways similar to the $100 million iPhone fund created by Kleiner Perkins in 2008, formed to invest in startups developing apps for Apple Inc.’s
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iPhone, and the fund created to invest in the Java programming language in the early days of Java. But they are not creating a specific venture fund with a set dollar amount.

Bill Maris, the head of Google Ventures, told the Silicon Valley Business Journal that each firm can make its own decisions on what to invest in, and there is not a need to set up a specific fund set up because the investments will be seed, or very early stage, typically $250,000 or less.

Microsoft reportedly working on smart watch

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Microsoft is working on designs for a touch-enabled wrist watch device, executives at suppliers said. MarketWatch's Dan Gallagher reports.

Some in Silicon Valley are excited about these glasses, which remind many of the headsets worn by some characters in the sci-fi thriller, “Minority Report.”

While Google Glass is not yet a commercial product, the Internet search giant debuted Project Glass at its I/O Conference last year, with a fantastic skydiving stunt onto the top of Moscone Center. Sky divers who jumped from an airship wore Google Glass and recorded video, which was streamed live onto a big screen for the audience inside the convention center. That well-documented stunt showcased what may be the biggest potential for Google Glass: the ability to record video while wearing the glasses. The wearer can share immersive experiences such as skydiving or a roller coast ride, as seen in this Google video.

A limited number of an early version of the glasses will be available to developers who signed up to be Glass Explorers for $1,500 a pair. The beta version will ship sometime this month. A Google spokesman said the company hopes to release a consumer version before the end of the year.

But there is also a growing chorus of naysayers voicing legitimate concerns about privacy and safety implications, and questions about potential health concerns.

“We’ve studied design comfort and safety very closely, and we haven’t found cause for concern. It’s something we’ll continue to watch carefully,” a Google spokesman said. “We have been working with ophthalmologists throughout our development process.”

Before Google Glass is even launched as a product, at least one state is exploring banning drivers from wearing the head-mounted display, a strip club in Las Vegas announced it will ban the glasses, which will have a microscopic camera, as is a café in Seattle. And the list is growing.

Geek chic or privacy nightmare?

Lawmakers fear the glasses will become a serious distraction while driving, even though they technically fall into the category of a hands-free headset. The 5 Point Café in Seattle, which is getting a lot of publicity from its ban posted on Facebook, wants to protect the privacy of its customers from the possibility of being secretly videotaped.

“It could fail miserably, or it could be the next great platform for app development,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research. “When you think about Bluetooth headsets, millions of them sell, but they are not mainstream. They are still in a geeky niche. “

Last month, Kevin Krewell, a senior analyst at the Linley Group, recently spotted a Google engineer wearing the sci-fi glasses at a restaurant in Mountain View, Calif., not far from the Googleplex. His post, on Google +, showed the divisive split in reactions the glasses can evoke.

“I saw my first Google Glass in the wild. I was at Scratch restaurant in Mountain View tonight and talked to one of the early researchers on wearable computers about his Glass,” Krewell wrote. “My wife thought it too geeky: ‘why do you need to be connected to the Internet all the time?’ I thought it was very cool. The display does cast a glow on the face that can be distracting, but I think that will be minor.“ Krewell, a semiconductor industry analyst, added that he “can’t wait for it to become mainstream.”

The view that the glasses may appear to some as a geeky fashion statement means that they may only initially appeal to tech nerds, who tend to be the early adopters of new gadgets. Whether or not that could hamper eventual widespread adoption is a big question.

“Google Glass challenges social norms even more radically,” said Rotman Epps. “It’s a high-risk product,” but she added that the venture capital collective is a great idea that will help fuel development, and “helps make it more likely that it will be a success.”

Krewell added that the Bluetooth headset, once considered dorky, is ”common to see.” He thinks his wife will change her tune. “My wife clearly is in the camp that think it’s an unnecessary distraction, and another geek toy,” Krewell said in an email. “But then she also loves to take pictures of her fancy dinners and post them on Facebook, so I can see her uses for it as well for comparing food porn and to access recipes while cooking.”

It’s not clear yet how much money Google is spending on the development of Google Glass, or whether or not it is also investing in other wearable computing devices, such as a smartwatch. Apple Inc. is reportedly working on a Dick Tracy like iWatch that can display texts, emails and in general synch with your smartphone. Microsoft Inc., too, is getting into the new frontier of wearable computing. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday the software giant is working on designs for a touch-enabled smart watch.

With all the focus on this new arena of wearable computing, it could be Silicon Valley’s new new thing. Indeed, venture capitalist John Doerr posted on a Kleiner Perkins blog that Google Glass could be the beginning of “tomorrow’s brave new world.” Of course, there may be positive developments in medicine and scientific research associated with Google Glass. Doerr wrote that he hopes “to see disruptive innovation in health care, education, entertainment, and really Big Data. And more.”

But society is going to likely have to balance the effect of another seriously invasive technology and ensuing privacy concerns, along with any positive elements of Google Glass. Let’s hope that developers use the venture money wisely.

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